Jiang Yunmo merely smiled, showing she understood that the fiend flood-dragon consumed a lot of energy, then turned back to Ye Liuyun. “These two fiend flood-dragons—were they captured from the Desolate Sea?”

“No. We found them in a secret realm! Sea fiend flood-dragons are a bit different from the land ones, right?” Ye Liuyun brushed it off lightly; he had no intention of telling her the truth. Instead, he changed the subject.

“Young Master Li has seen sea fiend flood-dragons before?” Jiang Yunmo asked again.

“Not personally. I asked some friends; they said the scales and horns are slightly different.” Ye Liuyun answered smoothly.

Jiang Yunmo nodded, asked a few more polite questions about Ye Liuyun’s clan and background, found nothing unusual, and took her leave.

After she left, Ye Liuyun also excused himself from the steward and returned to his residence with Qingyu.

“Master, that boy must have a concealment treasure—I can’t see his cultivation or his soul. His illusion arts are strong too; his soul force is probably not weak. If I didn’t have the Purple Pupil, he might have controlled me,” Ziao reported on the way back.

Jiang Yunmo wasn’t worried about Ye Liuyun’s soul power. Her own soul force already surpassed that of most Ninth Heaven cultivators; she doubted he could outmatch her—he merely knew some illusions.

“Mm. A mutual probe doesn’t prove anything. Still, I feel he’s not simple. Did you memorize his scent? We can’t act inside the royal city—it would draw attention.” She intended to have Ziao track Ye Liuyun and strike once he left the city.

“Memorized. He won’t get away,” Ziao confirmed.

“Good. Once he leaves the city, we follow. Find your chance and take him down,” Jiang Yunmo ordered.

“This kid’s that important? Worth the master leaving the city herself?” Ziao asked, surprised.

“Of course. If he really is Ye Liuyun—or one of his group—he’s priceless. Even if not, bringing back all those resources plus two late-Ninth-Heaven fiend flood-dragons won’t be a wasted trip.”

“True enough,” Ziao agreed.

Meanwhile, Ye Liuyun was discussing countermeasures with his beasts. “A Seventh-Heaven mastiff beast with Purple Pupils that can see through illusions, pierce souls, maybe even attack them directly.”

“Mastiffs have keen noses and x-ray eyes—hard to shake,” the beasts agreed.

“If those eyes can annihilate souls outright, it’s even more dangerous! We should strike first and kill it!” Leiming worried the special pupils might harm Ye Liuyun.

Ye Liuyun wanted the mastiff dead too. The Holy Flame Slave Market sold slaves, corpses, and other resources he needed; he planned to return. Sending someone else wasn’t safe. Without eliminating the mastiff, his next visit would expose him.

“I’m afraid many experts will back the mastiff.”

He worried he might not even get out of the royal city—that the dynasty or Jiang Yunmo would act inside the walls. Once outside, he could fight freely, and the mastiff wouldn’t worry him much.

Since the mastiff’s Purple Pupil couldn’t pierce his sea of consciousness, the Myriad God Seal should protect him; it had never failed.

Back at his residence, he released the two guards his first clone had dispatched, stored the four old men in his spatial world, then used his soul red-pupil to control Qingyu, ordering her to escort him out of the city—quietly, letting the guild learn as late as possible.

Under the illusion, Qingyu behaved as usual, leading Ye Liuyun out of the guild and straight out of the city.

The moment Ye Liuyun left, Jiang Yunmo sensed something odd. Previously, he’d always taken newly bought slaves with him; this time he stored them and brought guards instead.

She immediately sent people to tail him. When word came that he was leaving the city, Jiang Yunmo set out with Ziao and twenty Ninth-Heaven guards.

Qingyu escorted Ye Liuyun all the way past the city gates before he dispelled the illusion and let her return.

The instant he was outside, he accelerated. After a stretch, he released Wu Xiang’s Void-class flying shuttle, its exterior already altered by Chen Huoyang so no one would recognize it.

His first clone piloted another shuttle toward him. They met; Ye Liuyun stowed his shuttle and entered the clone’s spatial world to evade the mastiff’s tracking.

The shuttle changed direction every so often, then released the two late-Ninth-Heaven experts from the Leng clan and the Myriad Transformation Sect to scout for pursuers.

After another leg, the first clone halted the shuttle and stationed an assassin nearby to watch. If the mastiff could still track Ye Liuyun, it would have to pass this spot.

Ye Liuyun didn’t dare make his next move until he was absolutely sure whether Jiang Yunmo was tailing him; he couldn’t risk having them barge in and ruin everything.

He figured that, with the speed of a Void-class flying boat and the course changes they’d made, an ordinary cultivator would never catch up. Unless the mastiff demon itself came after him, everyone else should have been shaken off long ago.

Yet less than two hours after he left, the assassin he’d sent out to keep watch spotted the purple mastiff leading the way, a Void-class boat following at a steady pace behind it, heading unhurriedly in the direction Ye Liuyun had gone.

“That mastiff’s nose really is something else. Even if I slip away through the black teleportation tower this time, if I ever run into that beast again it’ll sniff me out. Might as well use this chance to kill it while it’s on my trail!”

With that thought, Ye Liuyun ordered the assassin to tail the mastiff from a distance and report its movements, then pushed his own boat to full speed, first widening the gap before landing in an uninhabited Thousand Burial Mountain. There he had Wu Xiang set up an array.

Now that he had a grand formation master at his side, dealing with these pursuers would be far easier—and he no longer had to worry about any of them escaping. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

He assumed the boat following the mastiff carried a fair number of experts; otherwise they wouldn’t have bothered with a Void-class vessel. He intended to wipe them all out in one sweep.

Wu Xiang’s skill in formations far surpassed Qiong Qi’s. He even tailored the setup to counter the mastiff’s violet eyes: the array not only blocked its sight but also wove illusions, letting the beast see only the original terrain while remaining blind to everything inside.

Inside the formation, Ye Liuyun could observe the purple mastiff and its companions clearly. The array was sturdy; no matter how fiercely they fought within the trap, no one outside would notice or detect a thing.